Reverse engineer your brain

[substitute]

More than 40 years ago, my father wrote a short story called "Dr. Pettigott's Face." The eponymous doctor of the story has a theory that pushing the face into happy expressions will make people happy, and has constructed a machine to do this. I remember that for years he had a correspondence with some neuro researcher who was interested in facial

Comments

[besskeloid]

Agh! Those lines aren't wrapping!

I did know previously that pretending to laugh was as good for you as genuine laughter, but I'm not sure that faking a smile is as good as really smiling. I'm trying it now, & I'm sure I look more gormless than usual.

[substitute]

Fixed, thanks!

Just attach this Smilinator-3000...

[besskeloid]

Upload a jaypeg of your Big New Smile for us, won't you?

Oddly enough

[feisty_robot]

Watching this man pretend to laugh does not cheer me up, but rather makes me want to tear off my face and run screaming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp-oJhBxn6o

[rivetpepsquad]

Read this this morning. SUPER-interesting.

[brianenigma]

I seem to recall an experiment from years ago in which they found that people with forced-smiles (specifically, the test group had a pencil clenched between their teeth in their mouth) made people more prone to being happy and humored by things.

[jessef]

I've heard about the benefits of fake smiling several times, and for at least half a year, I enact it routinely. My subjective experience, which isn't worth much, suggests to me that it's effective. The key is that it has to be a very small smile, almost impercetibly so. Think Mona Lisa.

[substitute]

You realize that you'll be rich beyond the dreams of avarice as soon as you publish "The Da Vinci Therapy: Finding the Code to Happiness with the Mona Lisa Smile"